West Chester seeks authority to tax alcohol

WEST CHESTER — The borough’s popularity as a watering hole for area residents, and the side effects of that popularity, have prompted council to ask Harrisburg for relief.

Borough Council is requesting legislation that would grant the borough permission to institute up to a 10 percent tax on each alcoholic drink sold in the borough.

Council passed a resolution supporting the initiative by unanimous consent Wednesday at its monthly meeting.

“What we find is we need additional law enforcement personnel and we also need additional public safety personnel, and the state privatization plan does not include a penny of additional money coming to local enforcement,” said Mayor Carolyn Comitta.

Current state law affords the right to tax alcoholic beverages only to Philadelphia and Allegheny counties.

Comitta said the borough is joining with other municipalities in this request.

“We are not able to raise the revenue we need to address our popularity,” she said.

Council pointed to the recent initiative to privatize liquor sales in the state as a clear reason to request the authority to tax.

The resolution states, “Whereas multiple studies have shown that alcohol consumption in a state increase when the alcohol sale and distribution system is privatized, and whereas the documented consequences of excessive alcohol consumption include general crime, vandalism, assaults, noise and a variety of quality-of-life issues that place extra demand on police and emergency services.”

A bill to privatize liquor in the state was recently passed by the state House of Representatives and is supported by Gov. Tom Corbett.

Comitta said she was shocked to hear how many legislators were unaware boroughs like West Chester do not have the authority to institute a tax.

“We want to raise awareness of this important issue both in our community and at the state level, but we want to educate these legislators so they know we have needs that are not being met,” Comitta said.

Councilman Tom Paxson said he is in support of the resolution, but questioned its impact on private clubs.

“Some of these clubs do a lot for the community and they are running on such a thin budget, to pass a drink tax would squash them,” Paxson said.

Last week, state Sen. Andy Dinniman, D-19th of West Whiteland, said he hopes local courts will utilize new state laws and larger maximum fines in place when dealing with drunken, illegal behavior; behavior that was recently seen in the borough at a house party.

Dinniman was referring to Act 205 of 2012, which increased the maximum fines for one’s first underage drinking or public drunkenness offense to $500 and for second and subsequent offenses to $1,000.

“As a community, we must make clear that this sort of conduct is absolutely unacceptable and one way to make that point in a way that hits home is by assessing the new maximum fines,” he said. “We in Harrisburg can pass new laws left and right, but in order for them to have their full affect, they have to be fully utilized.”

Dinniman noted that assessing higher fines can not only deter bad behavior but can also correctly shift the costs of such behavior from the local community to the perpetrators. Fines for crimes including disorderly conduct, underage drinking and public drunkenness go to the municipality where the offense took place.

“For too long in towns like West Chester, law-abiding taxpayers have had to pay more and more for police due to the irresponsible and illegal behavior of others,” Dinniman said. “Assessing higher fines and letting those fines go back to the home municipality help reverse this trend.”

Dinniman said he and fellow state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre, continue to work on yet more legislation to further shift the cost of alcohol-fueled crimes to those that commit them.

Their bill, Senate Bill 943 of last session, seeks to reduce the number of alcohol violations by letting courts assess a new $100 court fee on those convicted of certain, specific alcohol violations. The fee would go to the municipality and specifically its local police department’s alcohol offense prevention unit.